The Brewster Bears have had some serious magic working of late, with five straight Class 1A title-game berths, unprecedented in Washington state prep basketball history, boys or girls.

For that magic to continue, though, the Bears -- who will face SCAC West contender Granger in the SunDome during Monday's Tourneytown.com Shootout -- may need some breaks very different from the one that has befallen one of their best players.

Junior Wade Gebbers, who lit up two-time defending state champion Bellevue Christian for a team-high 19 points in the 2007 quarterfinals, may not be back from a broken foot in time to help the Bears defend their title.

He suffered a knee injury (torn MCL) in the final regular-season game of football season and missed the first month of basketball season. Then, after playing two games during the Bears' Christmas tournament, Gebbers stepped on a teammate's foot in practice and broke a bone in his own foot. These days he gets around with cast and crutches.

"It doesn't look good," said Bears coach Tim Taylor. "When he came back for those two games, we were like night and day. We played really well; our team was just much more calm with him in there. He's the point guard, the quarterback. We're just much more calm when he's playing."

There's still a chance that Gebbers may make it back in time for a district/regional run. Until then, though, the Bears (7-4) are getting big production from fast-improving 6-foot-4 senior Cole Youngers and senior guard Austin Benson, who combine for 27 points a game.

NO ORDINARY JOE: While Gebbers won't be playing in Monday's Tourneytown event, another sharpshooting prodigy will be. Chelan sophomore Joe Harris Jr. -- son of the Goats' coach -- will lead his team against Grandview. And, says Taylor, the young Harris is worth watching.

"He's really good," Taylor said of Harris, who is averaging nearly 22 points for the Goats. "He's going to be a Division I player. He's such a great shooter -- he's got a feather touch, he sees the floor, and if you're open, he gets it to you."

This is how valuable Harris has become for the Goats, who are 10-2 after beating Brewster on Tuesday night. Over his short career, they're 1-8 in games when he has scored 12 points or fewer; at 13 or more points, their record has been 24-5.

DIFFERENCE MAKER: A lot of people around the state assumed that Bellevue Christian might take a step backward after graduating its two senior stars off last year's team, all-state forward Jeffrey Downs (now playing at Seattle Pacific) and Evan Haines (now playing at Westmont in California).

But then Jeremy Bohnett -- whose athletic focus had previously revolved around baseball -- came out for the team. He's 6-foot-5, 215 pounds and runs like a gazelle.

"I know he's the fastest post in the state. He really gets up and down the floor," Vikings coach Mike Downs says of Bohnett, who is averaging 17 points and 11 rebounds. "He's just a tremendous surprise for us." And so is BC's 12-2 record.

A NEW EMERALD GLOW? Bellevue Christian has dominated the Emerald City League since it moved over the now-defunct Chinook League prior to the 2004-05 season. The Vikings won their first 43 ECL games, including their first three this year, before dropping a 43-39 thriller last week to Cedar Park Christian.

CPC's 7-4 season record is extremely misleading. Three of the Eagles' losses came to 4A schools in a California tournament, and they boast two stellar guards -- a deadly outside shooter in Jon Ramos and an explosive slasher in Riley Bettinger.

The BC-CPC rematch is tonight, this time on the Vikings' floor. And maybe this time BC -- which as a team shoots above 40 percent on 3-pointers -- won't go 2-for-15 from beyond the arc.

TURNABOUTS: Lakeside (9 Mile Falls) has gone 8-0 since starting the season 0-8. Cashmere, which has reached the state tournament nine of the last 10 years and trophied in five of them, began 0-9 and has since gone 3-0. Lake Roosevelt lost its season opener by 28 points and won its next 13 by an average of 22.

TOPSY TURVY: The Nisqually League has four teams capable of doing some damage in the 1A boys tournament. But which teams will get here? Charles Wright, which was bolstered with the addition of 6-5 forward Gerald Hill (last year's SPSL South MVP at Curtis before transferring), beat Seattle Christian ... which beat Cascade Christian ... which beat Vashon ... which beat Charles Wright.

OVER AND OUT: Two well-known coaches who have routinely brought contenders to the SunDome for the 1A tournament, Marv Morris of King's and Freeman's Mike Thacker, won't get to do it this year. The Freeman school board dumped Thacker as coach, despite a raucous uprising of public support for Thacker from players, students and parents; and Morris took what King's has described as a "leave of absence for health reasons." Replacing them: at Freeman, Greg Hannan, son of GNAC Commissioner Dick Hannan; and at King's, Morris' former assistant, Bill Liley.